Billy Connolly

Noel Gallagher: Billy Connolly helped me kick £1m drugs

Noel Gallagher has revealed how comic legend Billy Connolly helped him kick the £1million cocaine habit threatening to wreck his life.

Video: Billy Connolly 'Troubles' film airs

A fly-on-the-wall documentary which shows Billy Connolly on tour in Northern Ireland at the height of the Troubles is to be screened at the Glasgow Film Festival.

Big Banana Feet was made in two days during Connolly's 1975 tour of Ireland.

The only remaining copy of the programme is in an American film archive which has been restored and brought back to Glasgow for the screening.

Video: David Peat talks to Billy Connolly

David meets Billy Connolly almost forty years since they first met and they discuss the making of Big Banana Feet. Film-maker David Peat, was the cameraman on the observational documentary which followed Billy on tour in 1975. Connolly travelled to Dublin and Belfast for two sell-out gigs. This trip took place at the height of The Troubles in Northern Ireland.

Billy Connolly joins The Hobbit

Peter Jackson has announced the latest addition to the cast of The Hobbit. It's Mr Billy Connolly...

A little like Billy Connolly's early travelogues, this lazily formatted affair dispatches the young Scottish comic - the most recent beneficiary of the small-screen stand-up boom - back to Glasgow to tell us about the roots of his comedy, interspersing the nostalgia with stand-up clips. The latter is sound, unsurprising observational fare, although Bridges has great stage presence for one so young, and his foul-mouthed bonhomie covers a few cracks. Off-stage too he seems a nice chap, getting some mileage out of a chat with Frank Skinner (who inspired him to go into comedy) and a trip to Utah to meet a real Chad Hogan (the source for a popular skit), but a contented guy with a secure upbringing and a happy life rarely makes compelling television.

Kevin Bridges's chuckling man-of-the-people humour has sent the Glaswegian zooming up the showbiz ladder to a point where he now invites comparison with Billy Connolly and shared a sofa with Keira Knightley on Jonathan Ross's chat show last weekend. This new six-part series sees the amiable Bridges visit the places and subjects he mines for comedy; in tonight's first outing, Benidorm, Americans, and his parents.

The Big Yin's not laughing any more

After 40 years in the job, why is Billy Connolly - recently voted the most important British stand-up of all time - walking off stage in a huff?

Has Billy Connolly lost his mojo?

He's still on tour at 69, but Britain's 'greatest stand-up' is turning into a cantankerous and unpredictable diva, says Simmy Richman.

Billy Connolly should know how to deal with hecklers

Billy Connolly's irritation at hecklers suggests a dangerous disconnect with his own legend writes Dominic Cavendish.

Billy Connolly loses patience with troublesome audience

Billy Connolly has been criticised for the second time in a week for ending his stand-up show abruptly. Fans in both Blackpool and Scarborough were left disappointed when the comic lost patience with disruptive audience members and walked off stage.